For the Best
by Jan Lee
Summary: [ONESHOT.] Hinata's only thoughts are for Naruto's happiness, even if it means she's miserable forever. Kiba, handily, changes her mind. Sakura-centric/Kiba-centric. Sakura/Naruto; Hinata/Kiba. A 'little something' for Toni Tones. Thanks for waiting.


**Summary**: [ONESHOT.] Hinata's only thoughts are for Naruto's happiness, even if it means she's miserable forever. Kiba, handily, changes her mind. Sakura-centric/Kiba-centric. Sakura/Naruto; Hinata/Kiba. A 'little something' for Toni Tones. Thanks for waiting.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto.

**Rating**: M. Cursing. Allusions to smut, but not actual smut. Sorry on both accounts.

**A/N:** I'm not usually up for request stories, but in this instance, I did have a brilliant, illuminating idea in the middle of the night. Hope you all enjoy.

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**For the Best**

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Naruto's whiskered face and messy blond hair hovered over her. "Sakura, can I ask you something?"

"You did, idiot." There was no venom in the playful insult.

They were twined together in his bed, sheets rumpled, pillows tossed every which way. Late afternoon sunlight poured into the sparse, clothes-strewn bedroom. He laced his fingers between hers, his other hand feathering her bare shoulder. She was utterly, completely, content.

"I don't mean that," he told her, his mouth in a petulant little sulk. "It's serious."

"Sure. Ask me anything." She'd tell him anything (and truthfully, to boot) after their satisfying romp.

"If…if I told you…" He hesitated. The light whisker lines jumped when he clenched his jaw. She noticed the anxiety and it bled to her.

"Naruto, what is it? What's wrong?"

"No, no," he said, quick to comfort. "I'm…I don't want what I want to say to ruin…this. _Us_," he finished. His eyes semaphored intensity to her.

He's too sweet, she thought. "I promise nothing will ruin us." And he'd piqued her curiosity.

"You sure you promise?"

She sighed, exasperation rising. "Yes, dammit. Now ask me the stupid question."

His blue, blue eyes searched her, judged and analyzed as they always did. She felt a moment of timelessness as he seemed to soak in her attention- -just as he did when they were kids. At last he breathed in and said, "If I told you I love you, what would you say back?"

His words had cruised together in a rush, but she understood them. Her heart, in response, rose up to her throat. Through her throat, it swooped to the ceiling. Through the ceiling, it exploded, soared, to the stratosphere. Oh, she thought, this is what it feels like.

Naruto had stood with her in her sick obsession with Sasuke's cold beauty, his mystery, his dark past. Her whole world had hinged on his blacker than black eyes and full mouth and glossy black hair. When Naruto- -who was strength and power wrapped around nothing but a beating heart incarnate- -had promised to bring Sasuke back, and then _did_, said he loved her, she found it so easy to cut those ties to her 12 year-old stupidity and blindness. She did love Naruto. She loved him, and she knew the meaning of the word.

Softly, she said, "I would tell you I love you too."

His grin was magnificent. "Ah, well, then, Sakura, I love you. Believe it."

"I love you too."

**- -N- -**

"Ino! Ino, are you in?" Kiba didn't care that the shop door crashed into the wall. He didn't care that the stupid damn bells jangled with anger. All he cared about was getting some goddamn answers. "INO!"

"Kiba! Yes! I'm here." Ino entered the main shop through a door behind the counter, towel in hand, apron shielding her civilian clothes. Her hair swung behind her. "What's got your guts in a twist?"

He didn't pause for their usual repartee, but met her at the counter, heart a hammer in his throat. "I need you. Something's seriously wrong with Hinata. And I mean, _seriously._"

"What?"

He reached across and tore the towel out of her hands. "We don't have time. C'mon."

"Whoa, wait." Ino dug in her heels against his tug. "Calm down. Stop a minute and explain what the hell's going on."

He hated to admit it, but he was on the edge of panic. The very precipice of it. He tugged Ino again. "Ino, please. She's locked herself in my bathroom. She's _sobbing_, and I _don't know what's wrong._"

"Okay, okay. Obviously you haven't heard. Naruto proposed to Sakura. They're engaged," she told him, as if that was the answer to everything.

"Yeah, who cares? What's it got to do with Hinata bawling out her eyes out in my bathroom?"

Ino sighed and pinned him with an annoyed look. "Think about it for a second. Hinata's been in love with Naruto practically since birth. She then reveals her feelings for him in a moment of truth. And _then_ he ends up falling in love with and planning to marry _another_ girl. How would you feel?"

When her words hit the fast-moving molecules of his brain, he came up short. "Oh. Ooooh."

"You get it now?"

"Ring a ding."

She smiled. "Good. _Now_ what is your priority, soldier?"

"Containment and mop-up." He grimaced. "I'm no good with this. Will you help me?" When she didn't go for it, he held up his hands in a begging gesture like Hana's dogs did. "Please? Pretty, pretty please? With cherries?"

Ino narrowed her eyes, letting him grovel a few more seconds before she broke into a laugh. "Fine, fine," she said. "You're buying lunch when this crisis is over."

Kiba readily agreed. He contained his impatience as Ino closed up shop. When she didn't want to ride Akamaru, who was the fastest of them, he nearly chucked her over his dog's back so they could go. He refrained and they made headway to his apartment. Too slowly, in his opinion.

He heard Hinata even before they reached the door. Her cries seeped through the walls. He got nervous then, palms sweaty, stomach in knots. He _hated _sorrow and grief because he smelled it, heard it, _sensed _it until it became a part of him. Ino was at the bathroom door, but he stopped her from knocking.

"Uh, shouldn't we get like ice cream or chocolate or something?"

Ino rolled her eyes. "That's only in the movies, stupid. What Hinata needs is emotional support, which you didn't give, might I add."

"How didn't I support her?" Kiba reeled back from the accusation. "Did I not get _you_ here?"

"Yeah, but I'm not the one she came to in the first place. Probably because she thought I would be on Sakura's side. Hinata needs someone on _her _side."

"I'm her teammate! I'm _always_ on her side," he replied, stung that someone he'd known for more than a decade would think him unsupportive.

"Did you say that to her before you left her weeping in your bathroom?"

Touche. "Okay. So I fucked up. What do I do?"

"First, tell her you're sorry you left her by herself. Then you acknowledge the situation, express your concern, and ask her if you can do anything to help."

"That's it?"

She sighed. "Yes, that's it. Trust me."

"I still think we should have a bucket of chocolate ice cream ready."

"Emotional eating is temporarily uplifting, but never helps in the long run. Let's stop this jawing and help out our friend," she concluded and before Kiba could temporize further, she rapped on the door. "Hinata? Hinata, it's Ino. Kiba's here with me."

Facing the wooden door felt like facing down a horde of White Zetsus, except that in this instance, he had zero training or preparation for it. Ino dug an elbow in his ribs, hissing at him to say something.

"Uh. Hinata"- -he swallowed, raked a hand through his hair because damn, he was lost, but there was nothing for it, so he continued, falteringly- -"I'm super sorry I didn't support you when you came to me. I didn't realize that Naruto and Sakura were engaged. I should've…I should've asked you. I can understand that this whole thing sucks and sucks big time. Is there something…_anything_…I can do to help?"

A couple more pathetic snuffles marked the silence between them. Kiba shot Ino an aggravated look, but she held her hand up in a wait signal. Then he heard rustling as Hinata stood, and her light footsteps across the floor. The door opened. Hinata looked like shit, but the ferocity in his heart only saw her shittiness as beautiful.

Her pale, pale skin was blush, a little blotchy, from throat to eyes. Those nearly transparent lavender eyes were shiny, dripping with huge alligator tears. Thick black lashes clumped together. The urge to protect, to safeguard, burned inside him and without thinking, he threw his arms around her and brought her inside his space.

"Shhh," he said, mimicking his sister when a puppy cried, "shhh. It'll be okay. You'll get through this."

Hinata broke into another raspy, inarticulate sob. He stroked her long black hair, rubbed her neck and back, and kept her tight against him. He wished there was a physical action that could take her heartbreak and pain out of her altogether, but he also knew that time was the best healer of wounds. After many minutes, Hinata seemed spent, weakened from the grief, and he guided her to the sofa to have her lay down.

When he entered the kitchen, his tea set was out with a small package of tea leaves. It was only then he noticed Ino's absence. When had she slipped out? Anxiety crept in, and with it, a sense that he'd been abandoned. But he knew Ino enough to understand that if she thought it necessary, she would've stayed. Her leaving was her telling Kiba he was doing a good job. She had left the packet of tea leaves, and after some careful sniffing, he concluded it was chamomile, the sedative tea. He fixed it up, made sure it was cool enough, and brought it out to hand to Hinata.

Hinata, dazed, stared at the teacup like she had no clue what it was or what do with it. He helped her sit up.

"Drink, Hinata. You'll feel better."

Then because she continued to stare at it, he held the teacup up to her mouth. She drank it with little sips, her gaze distant and made no indication she was aware of anything. Kiba had also brought out a clean, wetted towel to dab at her face. She reclined back, arms limp at her side to bear his ministrations without speaking. Her eyes were fixed on the ceiling.

A surge of uselessness, impotency, overcame him, made him furious. She didn't seem better. Ino was fucking _wrong_ and he had wasted time _not helping._ "Lay here for as much time as you need," he whispered. He didn't know what he would do, but he had to form a secondary plan. He rose but she gripped his arm with sudden, desperate strength.

"Don't leave me." Hoarseness ruined her voice. "Don't leave."

That small exchange wiped clean the bitter feeling that he had done nothing. She needed his presence, and he would stay beside her until he was dead from starvation or dehydration. He knelt at her side, threading his fingers between hers. He kissed the back of her hand because that seemed like the right thing to do. Soon, her eyelids fluttered, drooped, and shut. She slid into a deep sleep. Even then, Kiba refused to even move.

He sat at her side into the afternoon, early evening, moonrise, into the wee hours until dawn threw strong sunbeams into the windows. He had to fucking piss, but he would pee himself before he would prematurely let go of Hinata's hand. The many hours he spent connected to her had allowed her misery to seep into his own heart. Her misery infuriated him. By morning, he'd worked up enough wrath that he would not hesitate to beat the living shit out of Naruto for the callousness he'd shown Hinata. He was fully capable of murder and didn't care about execution or prison.

The sunshine hit her full in the face, brightening her soft prettiness, but shutting the blinds would separate them. As a compromise, he scooted the chair in a position that would block the light. In the middle of this, she woke.

"You don't have to do that," she murmured. This time, when her eyes opened, she _saw_ him. "Good morning."

Relief was powerful enough that there was nothing on earth or in heaven that would've stopped his tears. "Hinata," he whispered and bent down to nestle his forehead to hers, "Hinata. Please don't be so sad."

She sighed- -an exhausted, wretched sound- -and nodded. "You're right. But…" her face scrunched, "it's so hard to stay together." She reached up with a weak hand and wiped his tears.

"I'll keep you together," he told her. "I swear."

A flicker of a smile gone in the next second. "You don't have to. You don't have to be sad because of this."

"No. You don't understand," he said because another conclusion he came to during his vigil was that his entire being was saturated with his love her. He had adored her since they were kids, but never comprehended it would extend so deep inside him that each time Naruto overlooked Hinata, Kiba felt the sting she suffered. And in the wake of her devastation, he got his stupid brain around what had been his heart's mindset from the beginning. "I love you." Then because his mouth had run without permission, he repeated it so he could hear himself say it. "I love you."

Hinata gazed at him with her tired, lovely eyes. Her patient, shy eyes that he had needed to see him. She closed them as a spasm of pain contracted her face. Inside her emotions were mixed- -he didn't know how she felt from her smell.

"Kiba, thank you. Thank you so much," she said. She opened her eyes and gasped for air. Tears seemed to threaten. "I'm so terrible. I'm horrible. I'm going to ask you something that is so selfish. But I must."

If it was in his power, he would give her the sun and stars, bind his soul to her whim, plunge a knife into his chest for her. "Ask me." He already sensed what was coming, because he had needed it too when his father was laid out in a casket.

"I need…time. Some space. Everything is so…chaotic and," she motioned with her hands, trying to explain with them what words couldn't. Kiba didn't need her to explain anything to him. "Please don't be angry. I just…I'm not…I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Don't be angry."

He cradled her sad moon-face with his hands. He kissed her, tender, soft so she wouldn't be afraid, and she didn't resist or push him. The kiss was as natural as breathing. "Don't be sorry. I understand. I'll wait for you. However long you need, I'll wait."

"Oh. Oh, thank you." Her sadness seemed to lift for an instant, and he tracked the happiness as it glowed from her eyes. "Thank you."

That was all he needed to seal his fate with hers forever.

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**A/N:** Hope you enjoyed. I know I could've extended this further, but I think you all can guess how it ends. =)


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